The Dissertation House

1705413600

  days

  hours  minutes  seconds

until

Winter Dissertation House 2024

Apply for the Winter Dissertation House 2024 today!

If you application is accepted, you will receive an acceptance notice via email and additional details about the Dissertation House. Applications for dissertation house are due January, 2 2024.

To ask questions about accessibility or request accommodations, please contact our team at promise@umbc.edu. Please allow at least two weeks’ advance notice to provide seamless access.

The Dissertation House is the term that describes a compact series of multi-day workshops, seminars, and activities that are focused on preparing students to finish their dissertations.  The first “Dissertation House” session was held in a large cabin as part of a West Virginia graduate student community building retreat sponsored by PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP.  Over the years, the Dissertation House has become a program that many students use to finish their proposals and dissertations.

We are grateful for the support of our sponsors!!!

• The Office of Graduate Student and Postdoc Development (GSPD) and the PROMISE Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
• The UMBC Graduate School, http://www.umbc.edu/gradschool/
• PhDCompletion.com http://phdcompletion.com

The Dissertation House is also sponsored by The UMCP Division of Graduate Studies, and the Council of Graduate Schools’ Ph.D. Completion Project.

The Dissertation House project is based on the successful Scholar’s Retreat by Dr. Sonja K. Foss at the University of Colorado at Denver (Feature article in: Scott Smallwood (2004) “A Week at Camp Dissertation,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 16, 2004.) PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, one of the nation’s 21 AGEP programs of the National Science Foundation, adapted some of Dr. Foss’ methods and incorporated them into strategies that UMBC’s Dissertation Coach, Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale, uses in her “TADA: Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished – Finally Finished” and PhD Completion books and software. Dr. Carter-Veale’s materials are used throughout the U.S. (Website: www.tadafinallyfinished.com and www.phdcompletion.com).

The founders of the Dissertation House in Maryland are Dr. Renetta Tull, Dr. Wendy Carter, and Dr. Janet Rutledge. The first successful pilot of the PROMISE Dissertation House was held in a house (a large cabin) at the PROMISE Community Building Retreat on the grounds of the Coolfont Conference Center in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, during the winter of 2006. The second successful Dissertation House was held in March 2007 at the Rocky Gap Conference Center in Cumberland, Maryland. The Dissertation House staff at Rocky Gap included Dr. Wendy Carter, Dr. Chris Carlton of the UMBC Counseling Center, and Dr. Tracey Wayne, a PROMISE Alum from the University of Maryland College Park. Based on the success of these PROMISE Dissertation House experiences, the successes experienced by students who have worked with Dr. Carter, and drawing upon the experience of Dr. Foss and the staff at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Dissertation House committee:

• Yarazeth Medina (Assistant Director for Graduate Student Development and Postdoctoral Affairs at UMBC)
• Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale (Director of Social Science Research, Dissertation Coach, UMBC Ph.D. Completion Project)
• Dr. Robin H. Cresiski (Assistant Vice Provost for Graduate Student Development ad Postdoctoral Affairs and Director of the NSF AGEP PROMISE Academy Alliance)
• Dr. Janet Rutledge ( Vice Provost and Dean of The Graduate School, UMBC)
• Dr. Philip Rous, Provost, UMBC

Former committee members:

• Dr. Johnetta G. Davis (Former Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Director of the Office of Graduate Recruitment, Retention, and Diversity (OGRRD), University of Maryland College Park (UMCP))
• Gloria Casilda Anglon (Former Assistant Director of OGRRD and Coordinator of PROMISE @ UMCP)
• Tawny McManus (Former PROMISE Coordinator, UMBC)
• Dr. Carol Parham (Former Associate Dean of Graduate Student Experience, UMCP)
• Dr. Jordan Warnick (Assistant Dean of the Office of Student Research, University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) Medical School)
• Assisting Coordinators: Dr. Kristen Hodge (UMCP), Dr. Tamara Wilds-Lawson (UMCP), Qi Cao, J.D. (UMB)
• Dr. TaShara Bailey (Former PROMISE Coordinator at UMB)
• Dr. Renetta Tull (Former Assistant Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives, Co-PI, and Director of PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP (UMBC, UMCP, UMB), LSAMP, PROMISE Engineering, and PROMISE Academy)
• Former Guest Coach – Public Speaking: Dr. Judith Kadarusman Pollack